We are free
by BleachLovergirl
Summary: The MO: Ministry of Obligation. An isolated place to the outside world. Orihime Inoue is taken there and discovers the mysteries of the organization. In this adventure, she faces friends, romance and tragedies
1. Lost Freedom

**This story is AU. There are no soul reapers, espada, hollows or anything of that sort**

We are free

Chapter 1: Lost freedom

"Wake up Orihime! You're going to be late for school." I opened my eyes and turned to my right side to see my alarm clock. It read 6:59 and school started at 8:00. I jumped out of bed and stumbled toward the door. "I'm up brother," I said in a groggy tone. I headed to the bathroom, took a shower and did my business. Then I came out, got dressed, did my hair then headed downstairs.

"You need to learn to put your alarm clock on in the morning, Orihime."

"I'm sorry brother. I thought I turned it on but I guess not." I went over, grabbed a piece of toast, kissed my brother's cheek and headed out.

I ran down my street and turned a few corners. "Hey!" I turned and saw my friend Tatsuki running from her house to catch up to me. "How's it going?"

"Good, I just woke up late that's all. What about you?"

"Well I'm used to you calling me when you wake up. Since you didn't call me I ended up being late too. "

"Yeah sorry about that," I laughed. "Anyway, let's get going. We're going to be late to school again." Tatsuki and I ran to school and made it in record time; we were 5 seconds away from being late. As soon as we got in, the bell rang. We took our seats and panted at our desks.

"I told you she would make it," Rangiku said as she leaned on the right side of my desk.

"I had absolute faith in her," Momo said as she leaned on the left side.

"I like how you all betted on me arriving to school."

"Well the past 2 weeks you've been either close to being late, completely late or downright absent. We got bored so we started betting whether you would be here or not. I said you would be close to being late and Momo said you would be completely late. That's 5 bucks missy." Momo pulled out her wallet and gave Rangiku the money. I smiled and looked behind me to see my classmate, Ichigo Kurosaki, zoned off again.

"Good morning Ichigo." he looked up and grinned.

"Good morning, Orihime. You were late again?"

"No, but I came close. Anyway, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking?"

"Your girlfriend huh?"

"Yeah," he paused, "but everything's fine. You know me; I'll get better in no time." I smiled and turned to face the teacher, who just entered the room.

Ichigo's been one of my best friends since middle school. Tatsuki and I hung around him so much that I started to have a crush on him. Sometimes I asked myself did I love him. I would always blush, but I admitted to it. I loved him. When I heard he had a girlfriend, I was sad for a while. Tatsuki knew why and she told me to let it go; so I did. I never met Ichigo's girlfriend but I heard she was really beautiful. He thinks about her a lot, I can tell, but Ichigo always shows strength in everything he does. His grades are 3rd best in the class and he does what he needs to do to move forward in life. To be honest, she's a lucky girl.

Class continued until it was lunch time. My group headed to the roof to enjoy our lunch there instead of being in the loud classroom or other places. Our spot by the trees was taken so we came up here to the roof. My lunch group was a little bigger than most, but I loved these guys so much that it made me happy to see all of these people. There was me, Tatsuki, Ichigo and his friends Keigo and Mizuiro, Rangiku, Momo, Ikkaku and his friend Yumichika and Ichigo's other friend Renji. We used to have my friend Toshiro but his parents transferred him out of the country. I heard he now goes to the same school as Ichigo's girlfriend in China. I thought that was weird and interesting at the same time. I didn't ask any questions though.

"I heard it's going to rain tomorrow." Momo said. "I saw it on the weather channel this morning."

"We can always depend on you for the weather huh Momo."

"You know it," she smiled to Rangiku.

"Well who cares about that. I heard that pro-wrestling was cancelled because there weren't many viewers. Can you believe that?"

"Pro-wrestling not having enough viewers. Oh, I don't see why that doesn't have many viewers." Keigo said sarcastically.

"I heard "The Seaweed Adventures" got cancelled yesterday."

"Don't remind me!" Keigo cried as he got up and ran to the end of the roof. We all laughed.

"Hey! But here's something strange." Yumichika said. We turned to him. "I checked for some strange things on the internet about a week ago and I found something."

"If you found it last week, then why are you telling us now?" Renji asked.

"Because last night I found evidence to support the sayings and findings." Everyone was quiet. Keigo even returned back to hear. "Last week, what I found was this." Yumichika pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his chest pocket. He unfolded it and placed it on the ground. The large print out showed acres upon acres of building. It looked as if there were farm ranches and even open areas with streams and water wheels. Some areas were large horizontal buildings or maybe even homes. There were paths here and there that led to other places and the homes were connected by wooden bridges. The whole area was surrounded by wooden and wired fences. To be honest, the place was huge and pretty, but I felt unsettled about the place.

"So what's up with the picture?" Ichigo asked.

"This place is pronounced as the MO, also known as Ministry of Obligation."

"Where did you find this?" Tatsuki asked.

"I found it on a website that someone had happened to put up at the time. About 24 hours after he put the website up, he was discovered missing by the police."

"Missing? That's horrible."

"That's not just horrible, it was also no coincidence. Maybe the people at that place got him." Tatsuki said.

"That's true," Yumichika continued, "but I found more information on the matter. The website was taken down when the guy who posted the info went missing, but I recovered it and found more information." Yumichika pulled put a notebook from his bag and read what was on it.

"The MO is an isolated building on the western side of America. It is isolated from the outside world and carried more than 150 adults and 200,000 teenagers/ students around the world."

"Oh my goodness," Momo gasped.

"Yeah, I also read that these students are taken because they were linked to a certain place in a certain amount of time. The building originally started with over 300,000 kids, but it's decreased."

"What happened to the other 100,000?" Rangiku asked.

Yumichika paused. "Their bodies were found outside of the main wired gate." Momo and I covered out mouths.

"How did that guy learn about this?" Renji asked.

"I read that his cousin and two sisters were taken to the place. They stayed for about a year but they ended up dying in the end. They were shot to death. He found them on the news. That's how he found out about them."

"Any no one did or said a thing?"

"The place is isolated." Yumichika answered Keigo. "These bodies were just piled up. Passer by's found the bodies. It could be days or even months until the bodies are found. Even if they could say something they probably didn't because they were scared for their own lives."

"Wait," Ichigo said, "you told us that the students were chosen because they were from a certain area in a certain amount of time. Do you know what that guy was talking about?"

"I'm afraid not. What I showed and told you is all I currently know."

"This is horrible. All of it is just horrible!" I exclaimed. Tatsuki grabbed my shoulder.

"I know and I'm sorry for letting you know."

"I decided this on my own. I just don't understand why someone would allow this to happen. How could someone do this so sudden and why would you take and kill these people. They're sick. They're just so sick!"

Ichigo walked over to me and held me close to his chest. "I know it's horrible, Orihime. But just let it go for now. Just leave it alone." I nodded and wiped my eyes of tears that wanted to fall.

* * *

After lunch, we all headed back to the classroom and finished off our day. When she school bell rang, I stayed in my desk to put things in my bag. "Hey, I have to go to work. Will you be ok walking home alone?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said to Tatsuki.

"Ill walk her home," Ichigo said as he walked over. My heart then skipped a beat.

"I don't know. No offence, but you're a boy, she's a pretty, young feminine girl and its almost dark. I don't know if I should let you two be alone together."

"I have a girlfriend."

"You act like that means something in this world me live in."

"Ill be fine Tatsuki. Go on to work. Ichigo will protect me." I smiled. Tatsuki smiled then agreed to let Ichigo walk me home. I could tell there was a smile on my face as she left the room. After I packed my bag, Ichigo and I headed off. We said goodbye to the friends that passed by us but continued on.

"So Ichigo…"

"Yeah," he asked.

"If you don't mind, could you tell me about your girlfriend?"

Ichigo grinned. It was obvious to tell when I'm nervous about something…or downright blushing. Ichigo knew I liked him, but he still considered me as a friend. I was happy with that. But whatever the case, I still wanted to know about his girlfriend.

"Well, I don't want to spoil too much for you. She's coming to visit me in a week or two."

"That's nice…still tell me what she's like." Ichigo chuckled.

"Well she's pretty. She has black hair and," Ichigo looked at me, "attractive eyes."

"So you mostly dated her because she was pretty?"

"Well not only that. I rarely noticed how beautiful she was. I mostly hung around her because she understood me. She was someone I always wanted to see. I liked having her by my side."

"Then what?"

Ichigo smiled. "I asked her out about two years after we met. She said yes and we've been together ever since. It will be our three year anniversary on Friday."

"Really? Congratulations." I smiled. I looked over and saw my apartment. I told Ichigo goodbye, walked up the stairs and headed inside.

"I'm back brother!" I looked around and saw the lights were off and there was a pot of dinner from last night." _He must have worked late again_, I thought. I walked up the stairs and plopped on the bed when I reached my room. I looked out of my open window and observed the setting sun. I got up and walked over to the window. I looked at the other apartments in my neighborhood. I looked over and saw someone also looking out of their window, but they were looking at me. This woman had shirt brown hair and black eyes. She stared at me and didn't even blink. I got shaken up then closed my window shade. I turned to turn on my room light since I forgot to turn it on when I came in.

I turned on the light, turned around then found someone standing close to me. I screamed and fell on the floor. The woman in front of me was the exact same woman who was looking at me from the apartment across from mine. How did she get from there to here so quickly?

"Run!" the woman said in a scratchy tone. "Run or you will die…run or you will die…run or you will die!"

I jumped up from the ground, stumbled down the stairs and ran out of my house.

"Tatsuki!"

"Tatsuki!" I ran to her house and banged on her door. I then remembered that she went to work which was across town. I had to go to someone. I couldn't be by myself. I was too afraid to. Where could I go? What could I do?

I bent down on my hands and knees and screamed. I scream and cried as loud as I could. It was all I could do. I didn't want to be a bother and I surely didn't want to go back home. Brother was at work. Tatsuki was at work. No one was close to me so I couldn't go to anyone close. All I could do was cry.

I couldn't stop my tears from falling. I couldn't let go of this constant fear.

"Orihime? Orihime!" someone ran over to me and held me close to their chest. "Orihime, calm down. It's me. Don't worry, it's me." I looked up and saw my brother. His face was white and he was sweating. "I'm here now Orihime. Come on let's go home." I jumped out of my brother's arms and leaned on Tatsuki front door.

"I won't go back. I can't. I just can't!"

"Hey!" I looked over and saw Tatsuki running up to the house.

"Tatsuki? What are you doing here?"

"What the hell do you mean 'what am I doing here?' this is my house. Anyway, what's wrong? I heard you screaming down the street. Did someone hurt you?"

"No, I just…"

"Just what?"

"I just don't want to go home. Please don't make me go back." Tatsuki nodded. "Ill take care of her Sora," Tatsuki said to my brother. "She can stay at my place for a while."

"Alright, but call if anything happens."

"Will do," Tatsuki grinned. My brother left to go back to the apartment. I didn't want to tell him what I say. Maybe it was just me. I didn't know at the time but whatever happened, I just wanted that woman to leave me alone. Tatsuki took me inside and we went in her room. She gave me a soda from the mini-fridge in her room and she had on her bedside lamp. She sat backwards in her chair while I sat on the bed.

"Now what really happened?" she asked while drinking her sprite.

I held my soda tighter. "There was this unknown woman. She stood in front of me, telling me to run or I will die." Tatsuki coughed when she heard this.

"Really?"

"Yeah, did the same thing happen to you?"

"Strangely yeah except I didn't see any lady. I was walking home because my shift ended early. As I was walking I heard a voice of a woman saying, 'run or you will die'. She said it over and over again but I didn't see anyone around me. I was mostly walking alone when I heard it. When I got closer to home it stopped. But a woman said it physically to you?"

"Yeah, she was standing right in front of me and told me what you heard. I never let that woman in the house or anything."

"Well don't worry about it right now." Tomorrow's Thursday so we have school. Get some sleep alright. You can have the bed."

"Thank you Tatsuki." She smiled.

"It's like the sleepover we planned to have this weekend except were having it today." She took out her sleeping bag from the closet and put it on the floor. We got ready for bed and said goodnight as we closed our eyes. But before I drifted to sleep, I felt uneasy. It wasn't only the voice of that woman, but even my own conscience told me to run.

* * *

As I felt myself sleeping and waking up, I remembered that I was going to be late to school. I popped my eyes open and sat up as quick as I could. As I sat up, I hit my head on something hard.

"Oww!" I said. I rubbed my head and looked around. There were girls in bunk beds. They were girls I did not recognize. I looked and saw I hit my head on a hold up bar for the second bunk. The person above me moved around a little, then I saw small feet coming down the bed ladder.

"Hey are you ok?" she yawned.

"Yeah I'm ok," I said a little freaked. The girl who asked if I was ok looked normal for the most part but I still didn't know where I was.

"Um, excuse me, what's your name?"

"Me? Well my name Harribel, Tia Harribel. Since you're in my bottom bunk, I guess you're new roommate."

"Your new roommate? What happened to your old one?"

Harribel paused. "Let's not talk about that. Let's just focus on you adjusting to your new home."

"New home?" Harribel nodded. Just then, a tall, well built man charged into the room and turned on the room light.

"Alright girls lets wake it up and get moving." The girls jumped off of their beds and headed to the showers. Everyone headed to the right of me and headed into the narrow bathroom area. The man walked over to me and Harribel's bunk and he looked at me. "I see the young lady woke up bright and early. Get her ready for observation." I looked at Harribel with wide eyes.

"Observation?"

She tilted her head down sadly then looked back up at me. "Welcome to the MO."

* * *

**Well that's the end of this chapter. To anyone who is confused, again this story is AU. There are no soul reapers, Espada, hollows or anything like that. **

**I hope I got my point across and I hope you liked it. This story was from a dream I had. It was a long dream so this story will be multi-chapters.**

**Anyway, please review and comment. Let me know what you think so far. Thank you**


	2. Pressure

We are free

Chapter 2: Pressure

As the girls in the study were quickly running around and getting dressed, me and a few other girls were slowly getting dressed in green zip up suits. As the other girls left, Harribel led me and the other girls out after them. Everyone followed the man who woke us up down the hallway until we reached an area that looked like the cafeteria.

The man turned around and stood tall and proud. "For those of you who don't know my name, I am General Salty." Some girls giggled. General Salty twitched his eye toward them. "Giggling like that will not be tolerated in this physicality is that understood?"

"Yes sir," one of the girls said.

"Whatever," said the other. General Salty squinted his eyes. The other students scattered and went to separate walls from each other. They had a straight line on the walls and kept their heads down. Harribel hurried us to our positions and made us do the same things. Before I put my head down, I saw the general tilting down to the girls and whispering to the one that said 'whatever'.

"What's going on?" I asked Harribel. She signaled me to be quiet. I looked over to my left and asked her the same thing.

"I don't know," she answered, "I just got here. I don't know what's going on at all." I put my head back down and tried to listen in on the whispering. But minutes later, I heard a gunshot. My head shot up and just then I saw the disrespected girl on the ground bleeding from a headshot wound. The gun was in the general's hand. The girl's friend screamed and so did another girl. Harribel took the back of my head and pushed it back down so I was looking at the floor.

"Thank you for your respect," the general said to the other girl who giggled at him. Then, General Salty walked over to me. I saw his shadow right over my head. I wanted to look up, but I was too scared and shocked to.

"You didn't see a thing did you?" I shook my head, knowing he was talking to me.

"What's your name, girl?"

"O-Orihime Inoue…sir."

I could tell there was a smile on his face as I said those words. "I'm proud of your early sign of respect. I look forward to see your progress, Orihime."

"Yes sir," I stuttered. The general walked toward the cafeteria again.

"Now does anyone else want to say something? Does anyone else want to question me on my actions?" no one said anything. "I didn't think so. Now eat."

The girls walked as fast as they could past the general and got in breakfast lines.

"Harribel why? Why did he do that? They only treated him with little disrespect."

"Exactly. They treated him with disrespect. Rule #3, always respect your superiors of the MO. It's rare of you treat one of them with disrespect and they let you off easily. General salty was just having a bad day so I he ended that girl's life."

"When teachers have bad days, they end people's lives?"

"Not really, but Orihime please calm down." My eyes were watering and small tears were falling. As I talked to Harribel, I kept my voice down but I couldn't get the image of the girl and the general out of my head. Harribel got her and my breakfast tray and led me to the table. She picked my food for me. She gave me a napkin as I sat down in front of her.

"I know this is hard for you. Trust me, I was like this too, but I learned how to adjust to my surroundings. You have to learn to become strong. In order to live in a place like this, you have to be strong and now show fear. If you don't show our superiors your strength, then they will use your weaknesses against you. That causes you to die quicker."

Just as she said that, boys started to enter the cafeteria from the opposite side where the girls entered. I looked over and saw them enter the breakfast line and choose what they wanted to have. After wiping my face a few boys walked over with a girl. They sat beside and in front of Harribel and me.

"Morning Harribel." The tall guy beside me said. She smiled.

"It looks like you're getting nothing but eggs and bacon again, Nnoritra."

"Well of course, there's nothing else good here. If they have something better, I'll let you know."

Harribel smiled again then looked at me. "Orihime, these are my friends. The one to your right is Nnoritra Gilga and the one to your left is Grimmjow Jeagerjaques. The one to my left is Coyote Starrk and to my right is Neliel Tu Odelschwanck."

"Please just call me Nel." She smiled. I smiled back and nodded.

"Nice to meet all of you."

"You must be new here." Grimmjow said. "Listen kid, most people around here just go "Yo" or just tilt their head up when greeting someone alright."

"No that's just what he does." Nel smiled. Grimmjow stuck his tongue out.

"So you're stuck with another one of the small fries huh Harribel?" Starrk asked.

"Yeah, but it's alright. I know Orihime will get stronger as time goes by."

"Orihime?" Nnoritra asked. "So your name is Orihime?"

"Yes, Orihime Inoue."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Nel said. I smiled again and looked down at my food. After I took a few bites, I started to enjoy it. It wasn't as good as my cooking but it was better than nothing.

After a few minutes of eating and conversations with the others, a guy slowly walked past the table with a tray of food in his hand. He walked past us and sat alone at a round table. We all looked over to him. I tried getting a better look at him but he had long jet black hair that reached his back and bangs that surrounded the sides of his face. "Who's that?" I asked.

"That's the guy known as Murciélago." Grimmjow informed. "His real name is Ulquiorra. No one knows his last name though. I just leave it alone."

"That guy freaks me out." Nnoritra said.

"Why?"

"Because, well, come on look at the guy. He looks like he's looking at you through his hair. But it's not only his looks that I'm freaked out about. During the Shi no gemu, he's always fighting everyone successfully and he always ends up on top. I'd like to fight him one of these days and see what happens."

"You took the words out of my mouth." Grimmjow smiled.

"You say that all the time Grimmjow. I'm starting to think you're not coming up with your own words at all."

"You're starting to annoy me." Nel smiled to him.

I ate the rest of my food and went to throw my paper tray away. But before I sat down, I walked over to Ulquiorra's table.

"What the hell Orihime! Are you insane!" Grimmjow loudly whispered. I ignored him and sat in front of Ulquiorra. As soon as I sat down, I saw gorgeous green, no, emerald eyes. They were looking down at the table. His face showed loneliness, but overall, he looked very handsome. "Hi, my name is Orihime. What's yours?"

Ulquiorra looked up a little. "Who's asking?"

"Umm…"

"I mean what's your purpose here. Why are you talking to me?"

"Oh," I said nervously. "W-well I just saw how lonely you looked and I thought that maybe I could help you at least look up from the table."

"Do you want something from me?"

"I…I want you to smile. I know I can't see your face very much but I see your lips. So until I see a smile, I'll be helping you."

Ulquiorra looked back down. "My name is Ulquiorra. Just call me that."

I grinned and nodded. "Alright, Ulquiorra. Let's be good friends okay?"

"Let's not rush to conclusions," he merely said. "We barely know each other and all you did was say Hi to me. That doesn't make us friends. Learn that." I was speechless, but overall, I guess he had a point.

"Alright," was all I could say. Suddenly, a whistle was blown. Everyone turned to the past hallway that neither boys nor girls came out of. At the entrance stood General Salty with a smaller woman who looked innocent and fragile.

"Breakfast is complete. Everyone please line up with on organized, same gender fashion and head down the hallway for the Shi no gemu."

Ulquiorra stood up and walked past me. Before he left, he turned to me. As he turned to me, my heart skipped a beat when we looked each other in the eyes. "If you live through this game, I might consider being your friend."

"Live through it?" I asked.

"Orihime let's get going." Harribel walked over, grabbed my arm and pulled me into the girl's line. I looked at Ulquiorra go into the boys line and everyone headed down the hallway. I tried to figure out what Ulquiorra said, but I knew there was no point in trying to figure it out.

"Listen Orihime," I looked up to Harribel. She was walking front of me while Nel was behind me. "You're a first timer so they may not let you do this today, but when it's your time to enter the games, you have to be aware of your surroundings. For some games, there's a glowing blue line on the floor that separates half of the gym room. Everyone on the other side of that line is your enemy. You take them down, no matter who they are or how they look. In other games, the line will be gone and you have to single handedly fight people from the other side of the gym. No matter who they are, you have to kill them and move on. In order to survive it's what you must do."

"You make it sound like it's a game of death." I joked.

"Now you know what Shi no gemu means." Nel whispered. My eyes widened.

* * *

Minutes later we arrived in the gym area. The entire room was wide and tall. There was a single room with a horizontal window in the other side of the gym where we entered from. In the middle of the room was a glowing blue line on the ground. That must have been what Harribel was talking about. The strange part was, on the floor, there were weapons. Multiples of weapons. There were axes, swords, and shields. There were also guns made of metal and plastic. I tried to not step on any of them as I walked further into the gym. I looked around and on the other side of the gate was another bunch of students like us. They looked around mindlessly, just as we did.

"Now listen students on both sides." The woman from the cafeteria said. "For those of you who are starting, my name is Jessica. I am one of the advisers here at the MO. This game is called Side shoot. The way you play is this; half of the students in your bunch will play while the others will play tomorrow. This game is quick and easy so you will have more time for working on your outdoor projects."

"Outdoor projects?" I asked.

"Projects that the advisers make us do outside." Nel answered. "They choose projects for us and we have to get them done in a span of at least a week or two. We do them every day after the games."

"For those of you who already know the rules, play fair and stay alive. Boys play today and girls play tomorrow." All of the boys entered further into the room while the girls headed into the room with the glass. When I entered, I noticed that there were two doors in the room. One door was on the left side and the other was on the right. The blue line is what divided the doors in the room. Harribel, Nel and I stayed together close to the window and watched as the boys on our side went to pick up weapons that were spread on the ground. As the boys picked up their weapons, they spread out across their sides of the gym. I looked over and saw Ulquiorra with a sword in his hand. He was a few inches away from the line and looking at the guys on the other side of the line.

"Now you'll see why Ulquiorra is called Murciélago." Harribel said to me. I looked at her and back to Ulquiorra. Just then, a whistle was blown and the blue line disappeared. The guys on both sides fan to each other and entered combat. I watched Ulquiorra the entire time. He hit someone with another sword and they battled. He then cut his opponent on the side and moved onto the next person. He continued to wound men that weren't on his side. But one question that came to mind was how did he know his enemy or not. I didn't give it much thought. There was no point in thinking too much about it.

His skills though are what surprised me. He would reach one opponent; either sword or axe and he would cut them down but never kill them. I looked on the ground again and noticed no one picked up any guns. They remained on the ground and the students stepped over them as they battled.

"In this game," I looked at Harribel, "the boys have a timeline until the game is over. They have to fight each other for 20 minutes or until their enemies are wounded or dead. Whoever makes it those 20 minutes spends the rest of the week doing their outdoor projects or playing other games with other groups around the building."

"There are more kids than us?" I asked surprised.

"I'm afraid so. This place is humungous. There are other groups and far more students than us. There are a lot of things to do here."

"Hey look at that guy." I girl said with a group of girls. "He must be new. I've never seen him before."

"He's cute." Another girl said. I looked over and saw that flaming orange hair. My eyes widened as a saw his face. My chest started heating up and throbbing. My eyes started to sting and water. I slammed my hands on the window and shouted. "Ichigo!"

Ichigo paused from fighting then continued after a second. I slammed my fists into the glass again. Some of my tears were now falling. "Ichigo! Ichigo can you hear me! Hey, Ichigo!"

"Does she know him?" some girls said.

"I don't know but she's a little weird."

I didn't care what they said or thought about me. I had to stop this battle before he got hurt. I looked around to see what time was left until the battle was over. I then saw a clock on the back wall that was counting down. It was five minutes until the battle was over. I looked back over and saw Ichigo was fighting off pretty well. I turned after a few minutes and saw there was two minutes left. Those were the two slowest minutes of my life. Just then, Ichigo and Ulquiorra clashed blades. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want Ichigo to get hurt but I didn't want him to hurt Ulquiorra.

"One of them has to die Orihime."

"No!" I jumped. "Neither of them will die Nel. I have faith in both of them." their battle was fast but none of them received any wounds. Minutes later, a whistle was blown. I looked back at the clock and saw that the 20 minutes was over. The surviving boys headed to their sides of the gym. About 10 guys were on Ulquiorra's side, including him, Nnoritra, Grimmjow and Starrk while the other side had a little over five; including Ichigo. As soon as the blue line came up, I ran to the left door that was on Ichigo's side of the gym. I exited the room and ran to Ichigo.

"Ichigo!"

"Orihime?" as he said my name, I jumped and circled my arms around his chest. I hugged him as tight as I could and allowed my postponed tears to fall. "Orihime what the hell are you doing here? Are you hurt? What's wrong?"

I looked up and looked into his eyes. His scowling expression didn't change at all. But I did see a bit of concern in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but when I saw you I freaked. I thought I was the only one who came here."

"I thought that too. How did you get here?"

"I don't know," I sniffed. "I went to sleep at Tatsuki's house then next thing I knew, I woke up in this place. But that doesn't matter. Are you alright Ichigo?"

"Yeah," he grinned then patted my head. "I'm alright." I let go and wiped my face. I smiled as best as I could while he still continued to pat my head.

"Orihime Inoue!" I looked over to the door I came out of and saw general Salty with an angry look on his face. "You are not allowed in this area. Get back here this instant."

"Yes sir," I said sacredly. I looked back to Ichigo. He grinned then gave me a hug.

"Protect yourself and no one else." He whispered in my ear. "Don't worry, we'll get out of here and escape with everyone we can get our hands on." He let go then left with his surviving teammates. I turned and walked to the General. As soon as I walked up to him, he slapped my face with the back of his hand.

"I don't know what's got into your head girl but you better learn the boundaries in this place." I breathed heavily while holding my throbbing cheek.

"Yes sir," I stuttered. The general grabbed my arm the dragged me into the observing room.

"Now, everyone head to the outside area with the uninjured boys. It's time for your outside projects." The general threw me to Harribel. She held me in her arms while the general walked off. Nel walked over and rubbed my back. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head to Harribel. "Let's go outside alright." I nodded.

We followed the rest of the students at the back of the unorganized line. We traveled down several hallways and past at least two gyms with students playing 'games' inside. A few minutes later, we entered the outside area. The entire area was a crop area. There was a shed on the left side with fountains and a sitting/relaxation area. After a second, I noticed the weather. It wasn't scorching hot but it wasn't comfortable to be in.

"Pick up the freshly planted food and plant new seeds in the open areas. It doesn't matter what gender does it. Just get it done. You have three hours." The general walked over to the sitting area while Harribel got some shovels and seed bags. Harribel, Nel and I started planting seeds in the open areas where the trees covered the warm sun.

"I'm sorry about the general." Harribel said.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. It's done and over with."

"Seeing the games must have been hard on you." Nel said

I shook my head again. "I've seen people dying in front of me but the hard part was seeing my friend fighting to survive. It was something I surely didn't expect."

"Oh yeah, Ichigo right?" I nodded to Nel's question.

After a while, Ulquiorra walked over and begun planting some seeds in front of us. I looked up and saw some of his hair over his shoulder as he bend down and planting. He looked up and we made eye contact again. I was speechless. Did he want something from me? Did he want me to say something to him?

"Hey…"

"Oh…yes?"

"You got some dirt on your cheek." He crawled over and took the dirt off of my cheek. I just then noticed that he was wearing gloves. I looked and saw Harribel and Nel wearing some too. I was the only one with bare hands.

"You didn't know we had gloves huh?"

"I didn't," I said. Ulquiorra sighed.

"Well now you know. I guess you really learn something everyday huh."

"I guess." I said lightly.

"Orihime," Ulquiorra said after a minute of silence.

"Yes?"

"Who was that guy you ran to? The one with the spiky orange hair."

I looked up from planting and looked at Ulquiorra again. He was still putting seeds in the ground. "His name is Ichigo. I knew him from high school."

"High school huh…"

"Ulquiorra what's wrong?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"Orihime we're going to plant some seeds over here." Nel said. I turned and nodded. As they left, I stayed with Ulquiorra and planted in the shady area by the tree. Even though we said nothing, I just felt better being close to him.

* * *

**Here's chapter 2!**

**I hope you liked this chapter. I thought it was interesting lol.**

**Anyway, please review and comment. Thanks for reading!**

**Japanese words used…**

**Shi no gemu – Death game(s)**


	3. Stimulant

We are free

Chapter 3: Stimulant

After a long day of completing outside work and other assignments the generals made us do, the girls and I returned to our bunk areas. General Salty walked into the room as we put on out pajamas. "Tomorrow, you girls will fight at the Shi no gemu; that includes you newbies. Good luck." The general walked out of the room. After putting my pajamas on, a sat on my bottom bunk and covered my face. I was shaking, scared to face the first fight I've ever had.

Harribel walked over to me from the bathroom and sat by me. Nel walked over and joined us. "Everything will be alright," Harribel said.

"No it won't," I sniffed. "If I lose this fight, I'll lose my life. I never fought before and I don't know how to use those weapons they gave the guys. I don't know if ill survive through this."

Nel sighed, "Orihime, I'm afraid you don't have a choice. Even if you don't know how to fight, you have to learn how to. No matter what, you have to show your strength. If you don't, the generals will use your fear to fight against you and you'll try before even trying. Be strong and don't give up. You have to remember that." I nodded my head and wiped my face. The girls got up and headed to their beds. The lights were turned off by another girl in the room as I entered my bed. Silence engulfed the room. That's all I needed to properly fall asleep.

* * *

The next morning, after taking a shower, Harribel gave me a while and red one piece with short sleeves and a zipped up back. The red diamond pattern rested only on the front of the outfit. She also had matching flat boots. All of the girls were wearing it. "General Salty dropped these off early this morning. Everyone on this side of the building will wear these." I nodded, but the outfit on. Harribel zipped up the back and everyone headed to the cafeteria.

I yawned as I grabbed my food and sat at the table I sat yesterday. Harribel sat in front of me again. Soon, the guys entered and joined the girls at their tables. Standing behind Grimmjow in line was Ichigo. I smiled as the guys walked to the table. Ichigo walked over and sat next to me. We side hugged and shook up his jelly bag. "Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine," I answered. "Are you injured from fighting yesterday?"

"Not really. I'm still tired but I don't have to fight today. But you girls do. Will you be alright?"

"She'll be fine," Nel smiled as she joined us. "We'll have her back."

"But what if you guys are too busy to watch her?"

"Then she'll have to look out for herself." Stark said. "Even if her friends can protect her those 20 minutes, one of these days, she won't have them around and she'll have to face the battle on her own. She might as well learn how to defend herself now, before she learns her lessons the hard way."

"You seem so sure." Ichigo said.

"I always am," Stark responded.

"So what game are the girls playing anyway?" Nnoritra drunk some orange juice and asked.

"I don't know for sure," Harribel answered. It might be 'Side Shoot' or 'Light Juice' or something else. All of the games here are dangerous and have repercussions."

"How do you survive without getting injured?" I asked.

"You don't," Everyone turned to see Ulquiorra standing behind me with his hands in his pocket. "You're either wounded or dead. I rather take the injuries. What about you?" Everyone at my table was silent. Ulquiorra then walked to his table. His hair still covered his face, but I could tell he cut some of his bangs out of his eyes. His emerald eyes could be seen a little more now.

"That guy still scares me; and saying that sentence is pretty rare."

"But you say it all the time," Nel said to Nnoritra. He simply went back to eating his food. I looked down at my untouched tray and shook my head. I knew I was a goner. Ichigo continued to encourage me and even gave me some hints on how to fight. I took those words to heart.

Soon, General Jessica entered the cafeteria with General Salty. They announced that breakfast was over. The boys went with Salty while Jessica led us girls to the game field in the gym. Ichigo turned to be before leaving. I turned to him then followed Harribel and Nel. We entered the gym and found plastic guns on the floor instead of different assortments of weapons. The blue line in the middle of the room still shined and divided the room in half.

On the other side of the divided room, more girls entered from the other side except their diamonds were purple instead of red. Jessica walked past us and stood near the blue line. "Today's game will be A-ball." Harribel gulped. Jessica continued, "Whoever doesn't know the game; it's simple. You have to shoot your opponent's diamond and if they fall to the ground, then you win a point. Whoever has the most point in these 20 minutes, wins a day of staying indoors and doing manual labor. Now choose your guns."

Jessica walked into the side room where we girls were yesterday. I picked up a handgun and at the top was a red substance. There seemed to be a large amount of it. "Quick lesson Orihime," Nel walked over to me. "Aim for your enemy, never yourself. Make sure to get a good hit. Each person your hit is a point for you. Make sure you win the prize alright?"

"I want to win the prize?"

"You might have a day of manual labor but at least you'll be inside and you'll still have your life. Just don't die alright." I gulped and nodded. We faced the blue lines as the other girls did as well. I looked down at my gun and observed the substance again. "But Nel, why is the game called A-Ball?"

At that moment, the blue line went down and the purple diamonds shot first. Nel grabbed me and pulled me to the ground. A girl behind us was hit directly in the chest by a purple gel. The gel then slowly spread while dissolving the outfit she wore. The spreaded gel touched the girl's skin and it started to quickly decay. Her skin fell from her skin and she fell to the ground. She screamed to the top of her lungs and then turned quiet. All of the girls froze, including the girl that shot her. The second I turned around to the other girls, the guns fired again. Nel dragged me to the left of the room while shooting some girls and hitting them dead on. The purple diamonded girls shot their way to our side of the room and continued to bring down our girls. "Orihime, shoot!" Nel said. I looked at my gun and followed her as she dragged me with her again. "Shoot!" she repeated. I did as she told me and shot. I missed several times, but finally got someone. As she fell to the ground. Guilt immediately consumed my body. Several minutes went by. Soon, the timer mark reached ten minutes.

Then, coming right at me, was small girl with black hair. She moved too fast for me to see her eyes. She shot several girls then aimed for me. Nel was distracted by other enemies. I fired my gun to the girl, but it merely hit her shoulder. She looked at the spreading gel then ripped the cloth that was shot. As soon as she ripped it off, I saw the tattoo name that surprised me. In clear letters, 'Ichigo' was written in black cursive.

As the girl tired at me, I shouted for her to wait. "Not falling for that," she said. Quickly, I responded, "I know your boyfriend." The girl's determined expression left her face. She turned to her shoulder and looked back at me. "What are you talking about?"

"I know Ichigo, he's my friend. We're from the same high school, Karakura high. I know him." Suddenly, the timer went off. Twenty minutes was reached. I looked around the only survivors were Harribel, Nel, myself and a few others from the red diamonds. There were over 10 survivors of the purple diamonds, including the girl in front of me.

She turned her head to me after observing the scene. She dropped her gun. I faced her again. "If you know him, what's his full name?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, right?" The girl's eyes lightened up. She wrapped her arms around her. You've seen him?"

"Yes," I grinned. "I saw him yesterday. I don't know where he is now, but for sure he's here. I'll tell him you're here the next time I see him if you want. What's your name?"

"Rukia Kuchiki and yours?"

"I'm Orihime. Thanks for not shooting me."

Rukia grinned. "The only thing that saved you was that you knew my boyfriend."

"Alright ladies," General Salty entered the area. Rukia went back to her side of the room and the blue light shined in the room again. "The winner of this event is Tia Harribel. Congratulations. We shall give you a list of things to do tomorrow. In the meantime, the rest of you go to your areas and wait for your general's commands."

The purple diamonds exited the room and we did the same. "Nice victory," Nel said to Harribel. The blonde haired girl shrugged. "I just got lucky. But thanks for taking care if Orihime, I couldn't do it."

"She's my friend and she was too afraid to even fire a gun. I had to protect her."

"But Stark said protecting me was bad."

"Yeah, but right now, you needed help." Nel said. "Who was that girl you were talking to anyway?"

"Well, I read her tattoo on her shoulder and saw that her boyfriend was Ichigo; the spiky haired guy from yesterday."

"Her boyfriend?" Harribel panicked. "They're involved? No, that's not good. If the generals find out, then both of them could be in danger."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Rule #7: Relations between two people is prohibited." Nel answered. "if the generals find out that two people are involved with each other or even have any sort of romantic feelings, then at least one of those people end up shot and killed. Most likely assassinated."

"But why?" I asked shocked.

"They're in love, which is showing a sign of weakness; something that generals never want to see." Nel answered. I couldn't believe my ears. If Ichigo and Rukia found each other, then they one of them would be killed. I knew there was nothing I could do; sadly.

We went back to our rooms, took off the suits and changed into our usual white shirt, pants and shoes outfits. General Salty led us to our next assignment, which was located in another section of the MO known as the North Building. We turned out to be in the east building. The general took us into a large cement room. There were guys and girls who were dressed in light blue outfits instead of white ones like ours. Standing in front of the group of people was another female general. She walked over to us and told us to take and pass down sheets of paper. The sheets were passed down to me. I took a paper and passed it to Nel. She took one and the passing continued. I looked down to the paper and read, Uryu Ishida.

The female agent walked over. Her heels clicked as she walked to us on the cement floor that matched the walls. "My name is General Lee. I am the general for the north building. Each of you girls received a paper with one of my student's name of them. You have 10 minutes to find the partner you belong with. If you don't find them in that time, you will be confined in the downstairs penitentiary and stay there for a month without any food or water. The only bathroom you will have is the one in the cell we give you and let me tell you, there's no toilet in that place. This rule goes for me students as well, so, start now." General Lee took out a timer from her pocket and pressed the side button.

We ran into the room and searched for our partners. Names continued to echo through the room along with squeals of success and fear. "Uryu? Uryu Ishida!" I shouted the best I could. I automatically lost Harribel and Nel. I was on my own, looking for someone I didn't know. Five minutes passed in an instant and I still had no luck finding this Uryu. Then, I bumped into someone. I turned to apologize but the man simply looked at me. I focused back on my paper and asked for his name. "I'm Uryu Ishida. Are you my partner?" I nodded my head. After ten minutes, everyone's partners were found. No one had to suffer the fate in the underground room. Generals Salty and Lee stood side by side.

"Good, everyone's together. Now to begin today's lesson," General Lee started. "For the next seven days, you girls will be visiting us here in the north building and your partner will be with you those days as well. You will be cleaning up this building or taking care of the crops outside without any restroom breaks or food breaks until your tasks are done. Let me warn you, if you do something wrong, then _your_ partner does something. You both will be punished. The fate of yourself is also the fate of your partner. You might want to keep that in mind if you're thinking of trying anything stupid. Now, we have a total of 14 groups here. Groups 1 to 7, you will be working inside. Groups 8 to 14, you will work in the plantations. Have fun." General Lee took the first seven groups out of the room. Harribel and Nel were in those groups. Uryu and I were group 9 so we went to the plantations with General Salty.

He took us outside, and immediately I saw the sunlight; something I never expected to see up close for a while. While in the garden with Ulquiorra, the weather was intense, but this time, it seemed to be cooler. The groups walked past the large green grassed area and walked up a hill to find a barn house on the other side. "Now get busy and get this place cleaned up." General Salty said. "Feed the animals and organize the grass. Plant new plants and get to work. You have until sunset to finish." Uryu and I took some rakes and seeds to plant in the clear areas of the field. We headed to the shade.

We begun to rake in the many trees and plant several seeds. We watered them and continued to another area. We said nothing to each other for about an hour. He looked up to the sky and saw the sun was lower than it was an hour ago. He bent down to me and gave me some seeds. "We have at least three hours until sunset. We can plant these in time if we hurry. We have more ground to cover."

"Alright," I panted and wiped the sweat from my head with my shirt. I looked around to find something water related but there was nothing around. I turned back to Uryu and saw him staring at me. "What is it?"

"Are you Orihime Inoue?" I nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"Yesterday while working in the fields, I met a weird brown haired fellow who told me stories about his high school life. He told me about his friends and one of them was a pretty girl with grey eyes and long orange hair. The guy's name was Keigo I think."

"Keigo? Really? Yes, I know him. He's in this building?"

"Yeah, but I think he was in one of these seven groups that worked inside. How long have you been here?"

"A few days. I'm still scared of this place."

"Don't say that, don't show fear." I nodded in understanding. "Well, it's nice to meet you Orihime. I hope we can continue this journey together as friends."

I nodded and smiled, "Yeah, me too."

* * *

**Sorry for the way late update. I finally got some time and my ideas together. The adventure continues as Orihime meets new people and even more surprises come her way.**

**Please comment and review. Thank you for reading!**


End file.
